Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Spencer Jack Is Not In Fort Worth Watching The Trinity River Flood

No, that is not Spencer Jack visiting his favorite uncle in Texas with a flooding Trinity River behind him.

The mountain in the distance should be a good clue that Spencer Jack is not in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone.

Last night Spencer Jack's dad emailed me three photos with no accompanying text.

I had to use my highly evolved powers of observation to deduce that the Skagit River is running high enough to cause some road closures. I've read nothing about bad flooding. I suspect if the Skagit River was in bad flood mode I would have been emailed pictures of Mount Vernon's new flood wall  being put to use for the first time.

In the next picture it appears Spencer Jack is standing on the south side dike of the Skagit River. In the background is the infamous I-5 bridge, infamous due to part of the bridge falling into the river last year.


When my neighborhood Trinity River goes into flood mode, along with the extra water, there is always an astonishing amount of litter. I see nothing floating in the flooding Skagit River, not even logs. Usually logs are part of a Skagit River flood, at times causing these things called log jams.

In the final picture I believe Spencer Jack is standing by the new bridge across the Skagit River, with that bridge connecting the town I grew up in, Burlington, with the town I lived in before I moved to Texas, Mount Vernon. The highway which crosses that bridge used to be known as Highway 99. Now when it crosses to the Burlington side of the river it is known as Burlington Boulevard.


The new bridge across the Skagit River was built in way fewer years than four. As you can clearly see this bridge was built over water. Currently in Fort Worth three bridges are being built. Three simple little bridges. Three simple little bridges being built over dry land, with the water possibly added after the bridges get built, if money can be found to dig a water bearing ditch under the three bridges. Three simple bridges which are projected to take four years to build.

Speaking of Fort Worth's Three Bridges Over Nothing, yesterday on Facebook, via my cousin Scott, I saw a long list of amusing quotes regarding politicians, one of which applies to Fort Worth and its Trinity River Vision Boondoggle...

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.
~Nikita Khrushchev~

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